I am returning to beading - one of my most beloved crafts, after a quietus of several years - I would do little things like fix a clasp or repair a necklace but I have not done anything new or original for a very long time. Well, it's time to get back to work. I need new jewellery and I refuse to go to the mall and spend 50 dollars on plastic beads and a cheap clasp. I have quite a stash of beads - at one time I was more or less in business, locally, selling my work at a small local gift store and my collection of beads grew in that time by many leaps and a few  bounds. I also tat and crochet and both of those crafts have always effected my beading - crafts and the various skills tend to blend together if you do them long enough ... beading with crochet, beading with tatting, painting beads, leather work with beads... the combinations are endless.

I found a lovely book at the library (I was honestly looking for inspiration!) Beading with Cabochons by Jamie Cloud Eakin - a really masterful book with wonderful pictures, easy to follow instructions and a basic good sense that I appreciated as soon as I  picked it up - I just see so many possibilities in the book and its all well within my skill level - nothing impossible to learn, nothing I can't imagine learning to do. I plan to buy it very soon, it's well worth the money.  I had seen these methods before but they was only the list of things to try - and they were hardly at the top of that list... now, I am ready and obsessed with mastering the techniques.
 Its good to get back to the beads. I grew up with beads,very fine needles (10-15!)  and thread in my life and I have never grown out of that love affair with the bright and shiny... my mom did wonderful work - truly lovely bead embroidery for the Roman Catholic Church she worked for... her work could have been in a museum if it was properly appreciated, it was that good, but alas, I don't know where it ended up, as I explained Holy Redeemer Catholic Church (Rochester, NY) closed down back in 1970's, I understand that another local church inherited its parishioners and its vestments but did they appreciate either? I doubt it.
Another impressive book to look for is Beaded Crochet with Ann Benson - its a multi-media book, DVD and CD that is well worth the 19.00 dollars I paid for it at Jo-anne fabrics. I have not had a chance to get deeply into it but it looks great. I crocheted beaded ropes back in the 1960's and even tried seed beads back then - so this book is more of a reminder of what I know than new territory.
As you can see, friends, I am trying to organize my work table... It was a horrid mess today - but I am well on my way to something like organized chaos, which every craft person who is honest will admit is all that can be expected of work tables. 
I did have everything out today and tried to do some organization - not easy. Every drawer was a mess, even a junk drawer... but finding some of the beads was like finding really old and dear friends.   If you ever want brain-overload try organizing beads - or, even worse - yarns. Both will make you head hurt and bring tears of frustration to your eyes - I am not a natural organizer.
My Honey, Leon, has been teasing me... he took me to a local mega bead store down in Olympia WA and encouraged me to buy my Christmas gift - which I did, all 290 dollars of it and I've not yet touched the beads. Time to do so !
Computer notes : I am getting accustomed to Linux Ubuntu. It works great, looks great and I am not quite so ignorant  - but, my God, I do have a lot to learn.